A toner (hereinafter referred to as a “decolorable toner) in the related art that is decolorized by being heated to a prescribed temperature or above is developed. An image forming apparatus that possibly performs printing which uses the decolorable toner and printing which uses a toner (hereinafter referred to as a “non-decolorable toner”) that is not decolorized is developed. Additionally, there is also an image forming apparatus that has a function of decolorizing an image that is printed using the decolorable toner.
For example, this image forming apparatus includes a first tray in which a sheet on which an image is not printed is placed and a second tray in which a sheet on which an image is printed is placed. The image forming apparatus performs processing that prints an image, on the sheet that is placed in the first tray, according to a user input. The image forming apparatus performs processing that decolorizes the image, on the sheet that is placed in the second tray, according to the user input.
However, in this image forming apparatus, there is a case where the sheet on which the image is printed is placed in the first tray by a user's mistake. In this case, the image forming apparatus prints a new image on the sheet on which the image is printed. Generally, because a user does not desire this printing, the energy consumed for this printing processing does down the drain. Furthermore, in the image forming apparatus, there is a case where a sheet on which an image is not printed is placed in the second tray by the user's mistake. In this case, the image forming apparatus performs processing that decolorizes an image on the sheet on which a decolorization-target image is not formed. The performance of this processing is a waste of energy. There is a case where, in this manner, the image forming apparatus in the related art consumes energy unnecessarily in printing an image or performing decolorization.